Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Game 6 Prediction, Odds
The Bolts are -115 favourites on the NHL odds.
Maple Leafs vs. Lightning NHL Playoff Betting Odds
With Toronto leading 3-2, the Leafs are -417 on the updated series line (-1667 entering Game 5) and the Lightning +343 (were +1025). On the series handicap, Toronto at -1.5 games is -106 and Tampa Bay at +1.5 games is the same. On the favoured exact result, Leafs in six is -115 and in seven at +205, while Lightning in seven is +349. A potential Game 7 is Monday at Scotiabank Arena.
Game 6 might bring back nightmares for Leafs fans as last year in Game 6 also in Tampa, Toronto also was up 3-2 in the series and leading 3-2 about midway through the third period. Alas, the Lightning tied it on a goal from Nikita Kucherov and won it in OT on a goal from Brayden Point. Both have been excellent in this series as well as Kucherov (1G, 5A) leads the team with six points and Point (2G, 2A) has four.
The total has gone over in 10 of the past 11 meetings in Tampa.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Leafs just can’t make it easy on themselves as their three-game winning streak in the series ended in a 4-2 home loss in Game 5 with a chance to advance. Morgan Rielly gave Toronto the lead at 5:46 of the first with his third goal of the series, but the Lightning scored the next three. Auston Matthews’ fourth goal of the series at 16:26 gave the Leafs some late hope. John Tavares had an assist on both goals. Mitchell Marner also had an assist and is up to a team-high 11 points in the series. Ilya Samsonov had 34 saves but would surely like back the go-ahead goal allowed at 4:23 of the second to Mikey Eyissmont as Eyissmont’s bad-angle shot went through Samsonov’s five hole. Samsonov was also caught out of position on Tampa Bay’s third goal at 11:53 of the third that proved the game winner. The Leafs are 5-0 in their past five road games.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning have now won three straight potential series-elimination games vs. Toronto. Only two teams have ever had a longer such streak against the Leafs, both at four: Boston and Detroit. On Thursday, Tampa Bay overcame a deficit to win a playoff game when facing elimination for the fourth time in franchise history and the second time against Toronto (Game 6 of Round 1 last year). Anthony Cirelli (third of series), Michael Eyssimont (first), Nicholas Paul (first) and Alex Killorn (third) had the Bolts’ goals in Game 5. Paul, who also scored the winner against Toronto in Game 7 last year, has scored three career goals in potential series-elimination games with Tampa Bay. Only three players in Lightning history have more. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to earn his 65th career playoff win and tie Dominik Hasek for 12th place on the NHL’s all-time list. Vasilevskiy is now 5-1 in potential series-elimination games since 2020 with a 1.59 GAA and .944 SV. The Lightning are 15-6 in their past 21 Saturday games.
TOR
TB